Great info in here. My '07 LGT with 50K miles just pushed a rod through the side of my block while I was leisurely cruising on the highway at 75MPH. I heard a pop, white smoke started pouring out and that was all she worte.

I am debating on getting a stock EJ255 block or going with a EJ257 block with CP Forged Pistons, Forged Crankshaft and Forged Rods. Raw1Performance offers some reasobaly priced "street blocks", see bleow:

I was running moderate boost ~ 18.6psi on my summer map and ~15psi on my winter map. My winter map was loaded at the time my engine blew.

Do you guys think it would be worth it for me to go with a "Stage 1" block with forged internals at my power levels as an "insurance policy"?

Any time you are doing a motor build (any motor build really) you have to ask yourself a lot of questions first.

1. Will you be depending on this car--as in, when it runs will you need to keep it running?

2. Are you be making payments on this car? How much of a concern is depreciation and ease of resale?

3. How often do you think you will drive it? I think people have a lot of trouble estimating this. People who do hardcore builds end up wanting to drive the car more than they expected, and grow tired of certain parts they chose for the car. Other people think they'll love the thing and drive it all the time, but it just sits there because it's impractical or because they got bored with it for whatever reason.

4. How much power do you want to make? Now take the number you just came up with and add 10-25% to that value. That's how much power you will really want to make after the car has been running for a while. Trust me on this one.